“I have my own, but I’ve heard rumors he was turning wolf and not staying with the knights,” Vance grinds out, casting an accusatory glare toward Emit.

Emit struggles not to smile.

Why does this fucking wolf get Avery? I wanted Avery. I need more persuasive omegas. Clearly. Emit may be hard up for good betas, but he’s got all the good omegas, and I’m starting to realize I’ve gravely underestimated their value. Leiza is the sole reason Avery would be turning wolf.

Even I’m in on that bloody gossip, because…it’s Avery. He’s been as celibate as me.

“Vampyre, you’re with me!” Damien shouts, running toward the direction we left the vehicles.

I don’t want to leave. I want to explain to Violet how she should certainly not be provoking Idun.

“Where the hell are we?” Violet shouts from the other direction, in which she heatedly stormed off in.

“My back yard,” Vance says in a dry tone. “Mostly,” he adds, since this is the deep countryside portion of his expansive property.

Violet shrieks, and I almost go to her, when I hear Anna speaking.

“It’s just a cat! You’re embarrassing me too much right now to call you my best friend, you sad, pathetic waste of potential badassery,” Anna chimes in.

“You handle whatever Damien has. I’ll stay with Violet,” Vance says, smirking as he claps me on the shoulder and heads toward the woods.

Emit trails him, and I glare at the two of them. “You too, wolf? Clearly Damien needs help—”

“He only called for one of us. My curse was broken too. I’d like to fucking celebrate at some point. Thanks for not giving two shits, you fucking tossers,” Emit states in a flippant, bored tone. “Fucking ruined the highlight of my century, but no one cares. Typical.”

Cursing Damien for picking me, I chase after the deviant, landing in the passenger side of his car before he can even get behind the wheel. They’ll dick around, circle around the truth, and never tell her she’s not capable of fucking with Idun, all because they don’t want to hurt her damn feelings.

She’s going to paint herself too much of a target, and now we know she can’t walk the walk.

“Fucking fast vampire,” Damien mutters under his breath, leaving me to smirk.

“What’s the hurry?” I ask as he barrels out in reverse, and then slingshots us onto the road.

“I have a beta for the first time in ages, and he has a sister on her way to Sanctuary. What do you think the hurry is?”

I scrub a hand over my face. “Let me guess. Some ‘rogue’ shifters have attacked.”

“Shocking. I know. I’ve been preoccupied. I should have warned him this was possible so he could have accounted for it and sent decoys out to distract her,” he says under his breath. “Talbot may not know yet; at least, I hope he doesn’t. Shera caught wind of it and immediately called it in.”

“She’s my favorite beta,” I remind him. “Of course she caught wind of it. She’s kept me better informed than any prior beta. She’s not going to be happy about these new combat trials, though. I dread that conversation.”

He revs the engine, cutting a curve so sharp I’m certain we’re going to skid off the side. Somehow, he manages to keep control, never wavering.

I really need to get the lead out and learn how to fucking drive. It looks damn fun.

“Shera’s always held her own in combat with large House betas,” he says.

“But now those Houses will acquire more and more physically strong betas. Since we entered times of peace, we’ve all strayed toward the more useful betas, as opposed to the best combatants. Shera’s the most unevenly matched and relies a lot on her reputation to instill hesitance. Consistent fighting will eventually ebb that hesitation, expose all her weaknesses, and ruin her edge,” I grumble.

He’s quiet for a moment.

“How is it my beta is the one we should be talking about right now, given the reason we’re on this mission, and yet it’s your beta we’re discussing?”

“Because my beta is better than your beta, and I’ve had mine longer. Now she’ll go to Emily’s House, because she won’t be able to fight my battles and win, once they get her number in the fighting rings. They’ll single her out and make a mockery of her. She’s a survivalist first, even as she remains loyal. Emily’s House will have fewer disputes.”

“Yes, but Idun is about to turn my beta against me by ripping his sister to shreds, and then pretend it was a rogue pack. He’ll lose all faith in me when there’s nothing I can do in retaliation. We never manage to prove she’s behind these things,” Damien carries on, grinding his jaw. “It’s just up ahead. They weren’t too far—”

I catch the scent of shifter blood in the air, and I’m out the door before he can finish. After leaping off the side of the bridge, I drop through the air. My eyes land on a car that’s turned over on its side, as I land in an easy crouch.

It takes a moment to really believe what I see. I’m standing in the middle of a bouquet of dismembered body parts.

As I stare around in confusion at all the carnage, Damien drops to my side, his breath snaking out.

“His sister is just a succubus, right?” I ask, definitely smelling some strong, old shifter bloodlines.

The scent of those bloodlines makes them undeniably Idun’s crop.

My eyes lift and roam over the abandoned car, smelling the slightest hint of succubus.

“She’s supposed to be a weak succubus in need of Sanctuary,” Damien says in response, no longer sounding convinced of that. “They’re not blood-related. It’s an honorary title, to the best of my knowledge.”

“How strong is your beta? Could he have done this?” I ask, stepping over a familiar face.

Literally. Just the face is on the ground and staring back at me with only one partial eyeball.

She was one of Idun’s finest.

Damien lifts his phone, the line already ringing. I hear Talbot’s voice come over the line.

“Alpha, how can I oblige you this morning?” Talbot asks too cheerfully.

“Any word from your sister?” Damien asks, his tone giving nothing away.

“How kind of you to ask, Alpha. She’s been safely delivered to Sanctuary, as of just a few moments ago, and Violet is in the process of setting up a meeting with the Neopry House to discuss the attack my sister met along her way,” he says with far too much casualness.

Damien and I both blink at each other a few times.

“We literally just left her behind in the woods. It certainly didn’t take that long for us to reach this,” I point out, motioning to the carnage. “We’re gone for ten bloody minutes and she’s preparing for war?”

I turn and quickly climb back up to the vehicle, impatiently drumming my fingers, as I wait on Damien to finally catch up.

He’s angrily jerking the door open, spraying a litany of curses, as he sits down, grips the steering wheel, and glares over at me.

“Why do I feel like we’re missing something?” he asks as he cranks the car and spins us around.

“Because we’re missing something big. Maybe you should get to know your beta a little better. I’ll have Shera dig up some stuff on him as well.”